WHAT'S HAPPENING

WEEKEND FORUM FOR WOMEN. Fifty-two half-hour TV shows for women will have been initiated by Channel 3, WKYC-TV, as Public Affairs Programming. Week End Forum will begin Saturday, September 16, at 6:30 a.m. The first topic will be "Policewomen, Our Protectors", In a series entitled "Women and the Law".

The Forum will be aired each Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 to 6:30 am. Preceding the twenty minutes of Interviews with Cleveland women and other women in areas of women's concern will be a five-minute edition of women's NEWS. A few of the forthcoming topics to be explored are: Women's Services Offered in Cleveland; Woman's Working Rights; Women's Art; Female Harassment; Life Styles; Problems of Women; Reproduction; Homemakers' Rights; etc.

Call your NEWS (not announcement of events) to Del Jones at 522-4970 or eves, at 777-9857. Ideas for topics and guests should be called to Donna Krause at 521-4675, day or eve.

Call in for support day: September 18. Call WKYC on that day and PRAISE the show and the opportunity. CRITICIZE the time of day it is being aired!

WOMEN'S GROWTH COOP-A retreat for women will take place September 29-31. Call WGC at 321-8582 for further details.

INTERVIEW WITH GOLDFLOWER (continued given top headline coverage on the front page was also very helpful.

After that, I felt that the reporter got fogged by the smokescreens that the prosecutor was putting up, which is just what the prosecutor intended to do to the jury, and ironically in spite of the behind-the-scenes contact that the reporter had, she sort of fell for that too. She was swayed by his emotional appeal. And it wasn't strictly emotional. It was lower than that -an appeal to people's worst instincts and prejudices. And I think she sort of fell for that on one hand. And on the other hand, she decided that this was to be a precedent-setting case. Really, that was her decision, not ours. Other cases had been going through the courts in other parts of the country. It already set precedents. This was not the first case of its kind, by any means. There have been many others.

And we didn't choose the case to set legal precedents per se. Any case in which there is a new interpretation of the law will do that. We chose this case because Kathy Thomas needed help, and knew that she wasn't going to get it anywhere else. That was our first priority. Of course we knew that she would have a difficult legal battle. But it was held against us later that we supported her because her case was not absolutely clearcut. Or it wasn't a good way to test the law. As far as I am concerned every time you go to court you are testing the law. You are going to find out if justice is as blind as it is supposed to be. And every time you find out that of course, it isn't.

Will the same counsel be representing Kathy Thomas through the appeals? And what are the appeals based on?

The appeal has been submitted to the Court of Appeals. It's over 100 pages long. The judge was overwhelmed by its size and said it would take a couple of weeks to read it all and decide. And we hope to know by about the 10th of August whether or not the appeal has been accepted.

There were quite a few reasons given for the appeal. One was the lack of inclusion of expert testimony, another was the inclusion by the prosecutor of references to witnesses who were not called by the defense, which was ruled by the Supreme Court in a recent decision to be illegal. Another was the intimidation on the part of the judge of the people sitting in the courtroom from Goldflower. There may be some other reasons that I am not aware of. Those are the primary factors.

One other question you asked me that I didn't answer completely was if the same attorneys will be working on the appeal.. Yes, they will. But they are also bringing in other attorneys to help them. So it won't be just Chris Conybeare and Chris Stanley, but also other people who have stepped forward and

PRETERM is a nonprofit, tax exempt clinic founded by women for women. An out-patient clinic, Preterm provides first trimester abortion, free pregnancy testing, pre-marital blood testing, mini-laparotomy under local. anesthetic, education with an emphasis on humanized and individualized health care with counseling.

Preterm has developed an exciting and humanistic audio-visual program on female sterilization by mini-faparotomy. Preterm offers to present this program to women's groups throughout Ohlo as a consciousness-raising tool in an effort to maximize women's freedom to make Informed choices for themselves about their reproductivity. There is no charge for the educational speakers' program. If you believe your group would be interested in viewing the mini-laparotomy audio-visual with a Preterm speaker, or would be interested in having a speaker on reproductive freedom legislation, sex education or a related subject, please call 388-1006 to make arrangements to book a speaker into your 1978-79 schedule.

OPEN HOUSE – A chance for lesbians to come together, to meet, talk, and enjoy themselves in a quiet atmosphere, will take place the first Wednesday in each month from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at 13200 Fairhill Road, Apt. 9. Open to all teebians in the Cleveland area — race and age are not Important.

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volunteered to help them with the legal research who are associated with the attorneys,

What expert testimony was denied?

We wanted to bring in two experts on battered women. One was a local person who counsels men who beat their wives, who has stated publicly before that he is terrified of the men he counsels, and is often afraid to be alone in the same room with them. This would help people understand the extent of the fear that someone might experience when faced by one of these people. That was real important in the self-defense plea that we were arguing. The other person that we wanted to bring in (and we had several people for the judge to choose from) was an expert on the battered woman, and the psychology of the battered woman: why she stays, why she is in that position in the first place, why she "allows" it to continue, why she doesn't go. Most people have no understanding of that whatsoever, and the difficulty involved in making a choice in that position, "Do I stay and run or leave and run?'' There's no right choice for some women in that position.

working

What's the committee's direction now with clients and their attorneys, working with other defense committees?

As far as I know and as we have mentioned before, the Goldflower Defense Committee of Cleveland is a first nationally. The women in New York who were doing research on this have just received seed money, a small grant to start passing the information nationally to attorneys in other cities on this subject, so that their legal research could benefit other cases. So they were delighted to find out of the Goldflower Defense Committee's existence. And they asked us to send them documentation on our progress and development .. clippings of Kathy's trial. We plan to maintain contact with them. They hope to have a conference in New York sometime next winter on this subject, and through the publicity from that encoureage other such as ours, to start. groups,

And we will continue to operate whether there is a case that we are currently working on or not -doing educational things, meeting the public with the concept of a woman's right to defend herself against violence. It continues to be an important issue.

Finally, what will happen to Kathy Thomas while awaiting the appeal?

Attached to the appeal were affidavits signed by many community organizations and groups stating that they did not feel that Kathy Thomas is a danger or a threat to the community, and that she should be

DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE PACKETS AVAILABLE FOR WOMEN-Call Cleveland Women's Counsel for more info. 321-8585 Mon.-Wed.-Fri. 9:30-2:30, Tues. 7-9pm. CLEVELAND RAPE CRISIS CENTER will hold a benefit on September 23 starring Pearl Balley at the Palace Theatre, Playhouse Square, at 10:30 p.m. Tickets are available at CRCC or look for the CRCC Box Office at the Palace. Ticket prices are $10, $15 and $20, for the best Beats in the house and a wonderful show with a wonderful woman.

A new organization, EDUCATION FOR FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN OHIO [EFCO] has been formed to act as a resource and education center for citizens and professionals who are concerned that all possible options are made available to women faced with a problem pregnancy. EFCO is dedicated to providing the public with accurate information on the medical, psychological, ethical and Offices are legal ramifications of the right to choose. located in Room 439 of The Arcade. If you would like to be involved in education, planning or public speaking to protect reproductive freedom, contact Mary Griesinger, Executive Director of EFCO, or Christine Link, Associate Director, at 579-0028.

A MARCH AND RALLY for Freedom of Religion, of Conscience, of Choice, will take place September 10 at 1:00 p.m. in Akron to protest Akron's restrictive abortion ordinance. The march will leave the practice field at the University of Akron at 1:00 p.m. and march to the Convention Center. For further Info, write or cali E.F.C.O., Room 439, The Arcade, Cleveland, Ohio 44114 (579-0028)

released on bond pending appeal of her conviction. A decision is expected soon.

WSW's purpose in conducting this interview was manifold:

1. to keep our readers informed of the developments in Kathy Thomas' case;

2.

to present a comprehensive view of the Goldflower Defense Committee;

3. to provide a forum for questions and clarifications between the community and the Goldflower Committee.

The WSW Collective believes that we have a responsibility not only to report women's news, but to take an active part in the evaluation of that news. Open and constructive criticism of the uses of women's time, energy and donations generates more trust among women, and so provides for continued success of particular projects as well as for women's political progress.

One recommendation We have is that the Goldflower Committee actively recruit feminist women lawyers to provide a defense in any future legal proceedings,

We actively affirm our support of the Goldflower Defense Committee of Cleveland.

The ACLU Women's Rights Project (July, 1978 Newsletter] has published various fac. tors which defense attorneys feel should be taken into consideration:

1. Evidence of past beatings and threats, to show that the woman had reason to fear that such behavior would be repeated if she did not defend herself, even in cases where the man's actions at the moment of the killing were not life-threatening.

2. The woman's size, her self-image as a helpless female and poor physical training, and the effect of those factors on her perception of danger,

3. The man's reputation for violence, which may have had a severe impact on the state of mind of the woman who feels unable to defend herself, especially if she had been unable to get law enforcement protection.

4.

The reasonableness of a physically outmatched woman resorting to a lethal weapon if the man comes at her with his fist. The law says deadly force can only be used to meet deadly force, but a woman may feel her only match for a man's fists is to resort to a weapon.

September, 1978/What She Wants, page 15